Search

News

'Disaster if pay deal doesn't work out'

If a new MoU is not signed by June 30, there is a possibility of players going on strike as a last resort.

Melbourne: Australia's Twenty20 captain George Bailey says it will be a "disaster" if the Cricket Australia (CA) and Australian Cricketers Association (ACA) fail to work out a new Memorandum of Understanding on payments, with the existing agreement set to expire on June 30.

If a new MoU is not signed by June 30, there is a possibility of players going on strike as a last resort.

Bailey, who is also a member of the ACA executive committee, said the players are optimistic about a solution to the problem. "The players still have full faith that the ACA and CA will be able to sort out the differences they have at the moment and come to a conclusion," Bailey said.

"Whenever there's talk of a strike I think that's very much a last, last resort. It would be a disaster if both the ACA and CA got to the stage where that had to occur. I've still got full faith that both parties will be able to rectify that in the next few days," he was quoted as saying by a website.

Bailey said the continuing deadlock is also affecting state-level cricketers. "There’re players who are in a position where they aren't sure whether they should be training because the reality is they might not be playing for Tasmania in a few months," he said.

"It's that balance of should they be looking for work or should they be talking to other states, who actually aren't allowed to talk to them at the moment. It's a bit of a challenge for those guys. They're probably the guys you feel for most, the guys at the domestic level who are in limbo, not knowing where they're going to be playing, who they're going to be playing for, and the state associations are looking at who they're going to recruit, who they're going to contract.

The Australians on Thursday left for a one-off ODI against Ireland in Belfast on June 23, before a five-match ODI series against England from June 29 to July 10.